The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for two of the Taliban’s highest-ranking leaders, accusing them of committing crimes against humanity through the systematic persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan.
In a statement released from The Hague, the court said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani were responsible for gender-based crimes since the group seized power in 2021.
Following the Taliban’s return to control, a series of restrictive policies were implemented, most notably, barring girls over the age of 12 from receiving education and prohibiting women from working in many professions.
The Taliban responded by rejecting the court’s authority, stating it does not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction. The warrants were described as “a clear act of hostility” and “an insult to the beliefs of Muslims around the world.”
Other restrictions imposed by the regime have included limiting how far women can travel without a male guardian and barring them from raising their voices in public.
In its statement, the ICC said: “While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms.”
The United Nations has previously described such policies as amounting to “gender apartheid.”
The Taliban government maintains that it upholds women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law.
Akhundzada has served as the Taliban’s supreme commander since 2016 and became head of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after US-led forces withdrew in August 2021. He was previously active in Islamist resistance against the Soviet occupation during the 1980s.
Haqqani, a close ally of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, served as a key negotiator during talks with US representatives in 2020.
The ICC is tasked with investigating and prosecuting individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, particularly in cases where national governments fail to act. However, the court lacks its own enforcement mechanism and relies on member states to carry out arrests.
Talks of potential arrest warrants first surfaced in January.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan accused the Taliban leaders of being “criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women.”
At the time, the Taliban’s foreign ministry condemned the ICC’s move, accusing it of ignoring “numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their local allies” prior to 2021.
Human Rights Watch has welcomed the ICC’s action, urging the court to broaden its investigation.
In a statement, the organisation called on the ICC “to extend the reach of justice to victims of other Taliban abuses, as well as victims of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province forces, former Afghan security forces and US personnel.”
“Addressing cycles of violence and impunity in Afghanistan requires that victims of all perpetrators have equal access to justice,” the group added.
